Le Basketbawl

The “Associated Press” reported Tuesday that the Los Angeles Clippers fired team General Manager Mike Dunleavy; just a little over a month since giving up his title as coach of the club. The Clippers have promoted assistant General Manager Neil Olshey to take over the position. On February 4, Los Angeles named assistant coach Kim Hughes as interim coach for the rest of the season.

The Clippers released a statement announcing the move. The team said “The team has simply not made sufficient progress during Dunleavy’s seven-year tenure. The Clippers want to win now. This transition, in conjunction with a full commitment to dedicate unlimited resources, is designed to accomplish that objective.”

The Clippers had a record of 25-38 through Monday March 8, and were 215-325 during Dunleavy’s stint as the club’s bench boss. Los Angeles made the Post Season just once while Dunleavy was coach and they have no shot at making it this season.

Rumors have already started to surface as to the candidates that may take over for the long term. Will the Clippers once again consolidate the duties as General Manager as they did this season with Dunleavy? Or will they hire a General Manager and a head coach; a situation that New York Vinnie believes would serve them much more effectively?

There are many reasons why New York Vinnie would favor any team hiring two people rather than giving all the power to one man. First and foremost as the old saying goes two heads are better than one; you have someone to bounce ideas off who may have a different perspective than you have. However in this day and age it is far too taxing for one person to be able to do both jobs effectively. The NBA has changed quite a bit since 1966; and there are no coaches on any team’s bench that will make any one forget Red Auerbach.

New York Vinnie believes that the perfect fit as coach for the Clippers is former Hornets head coach Byron Scott. Not only is Scott one of the sharpest young coaches available; there is already a very strong connection with the city of Los Angeles due to Scott being a key member of the “Showtime-Era Lakers.” There are not a whole bunch of situations in the NBA where a head coach can help you sell tickets.

The Clippers have been a bottom feeder in the NBA almost every year they have been in existence. They now have a chance to start out and bring in the right management team to finally turn their fortunes around. Will they be smart enough to do that? Only time will tell.

Now This Would Be Frickin Hilarious! However as much as New York Vinnie would love to see this take place not even Frickin Donald Sterling could be this much of a Frickin Half-Wit! A reporter for “FOXSports.com” senior college basketball writer Jeff Goodman is reporting that the Los Angeles Clippers are considering Isiah Thomas to  become the team’s new head coach and General Manager. Former head coach Mike Dunleavy gave up his bench duties on Thursday to according to him devote more of his attention to his front office duties. Clippers Team President Andy Roesser said that Dunleavy was replaced on the bench by assistant coach Kim Hughes because the team needed a “fresh voice.”

The Los Angeles Clippers and Zeke would be enough to possibly to  move the Clippers to Seattle! As bad as that team has been historically they would be shaken to the club’s very Frickin foundation were Thomas to be in charge. This would take Donald Sterling from being one of the worst Team Owners in the history of the NBA to Numero Uno! Even Frickin Sterling could not seriously entertain this as much of a Frickin Imbecile as he is!

Thomas who drove “MY BOYS”  the New York Knicks back to the stone age is currently the head coach of Florida International University in Miami. The team is 7-18 in its first season under Zeke’s guidance.

The “Associated Press” Thursday reported that Mike Dunleavy will no longer be the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers but he will remain with the club as their General Manager. Clippers assistant coach Kim Hughes will  be the interim coach for the remainder of the season. Dunleavy released a statement “I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the ideal time for me to direct my efforts toward the many personnel opportunities that lie before us, such as the trade market, the draft and the free agent process. We fully expect to be active and productive on all those fronts.”

Los Angeles Team President Andy Roeser did not exactly explain the change on the bench the same way Dunleavy did. Roeser told reporters “It just seems clear that the team needs a fresh voice, and we hope that our players will respond in a positive way.As we approach the trade deadline, the NBA draft and the upcoming free agent period, our team is very well-positioned from a salary cap standpoint. Mike’s experienced input will be vitally important as we continue to develop our young talented nucleus and shape our team’s future.”

Now New York Vinnie looks at these two statements and they really don’t look like they are talking about the same situation. Roeser is talking about the team needing a new point of view and Dunleavy is saying that “he” made the move to concentrate on the “important matters.” Which tells New York Vinnie most likely Dunleavy will be gone from the team at the end of the season.

There are certain actors and actresses that have huge Frickin hits early in their careers and then basically ride those early triumphs fror the rest of their lives. Your Old Pal New York Vinnie was watching “Biography” the other night and this installment was on comedian/actor Eddie Murphy. My Man Murphy was at one time the second funniest man on the Planet second only to the late great Richard Pryor. 

However Eddie has not done stand-up in years and the great movies he made early in his career, “Beverly Hills Cop“, “48 Hours“, “Trading Places” and New York Vinnie’s all time favorite “Coming To America” were all made an awfully long time ago. He has struck gold occasionally like the first “Nutty Professor” and his role in “Dreamgirls” in which he was Frickin killer but those have been the exceptions.

Eddie in New York Vinnie’s opinion just goes through the Frickin motions in most of his recent Frickin movies like “Daddy Day Care“,  “Doctor Doolittle” and my daughter knows the stock market and I am a Frickin Clueless Moron. For what ever the reason Eddie worked real hard to attain success but it almost is like he does not enjoy it; it is sad to see such talent go to waste. However people still go to his movies and the studios keep making them all based on his early success.

New York Vinnie assumes there are most likely people in every profession that have conducted their careers similarly. However because Murphy is in the public spotlight we get to see it played out in front of us. There are also folks like that in Pro Sports both on the field and in management that start off their careers with huge successes yet never come close to matching them again. The lucky ones are the guys who can milk that early good fortune into long and mediocre careers.

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy is one of the “LUCKIEST ONES” currently coaching in the NBA. Dunleavy his first year as head coach of the L.A. Lakers took his team to the NBA Finals and they lost to the Chicago Bulls. He has never been back since that first year in fact his entire career has really been less than mediocre as he has a career coaching record through Saturday night of  595-695 which is a career average of .461.

Yet Dunleavy still has a job while Byron Scott has just been fired by the New Orleans Hornets and guys like Mark Jackson who truly know the game can not get their first head coaching gig. Nobody ever said life was fair and the three men I just brought up prove that to be true. However according to reports out of Los Angeles Dunleavy’s luck could be running out.

“ESPN.com” is reporting that NBA sources are stating that Clippers owner Donald Sterling may have finally decided to make a coaching change. There have been reports that they would like Dunleavy to retain his job as the team’s General Manager but many say that he would not want just the front office job. Now Donald Sterling is no picnic as he and the Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor may be the worst two owners in the NBA. Sterling has also been known to change his mind frequently so even if these reports are accurate now it does not mean he will feel the same way next week.

The Clippers have some young talent and if they are able to retain their players bringing in a Byron Scott could finally put the team on the right track. They say that a team is an extension of their coach; with the Clippers you have a less than mediocre coach and a less than mediocre team.  

Once again the time has come for another installment of  “New York Vinnie’s tips for how to get along better in the World!” Your Old Pal New York Vinnie from time to time shares life lessons with you so hopefully you can avoid some of the Crappola that I did growing up. Most of the time it just comes down to not having enough Frickin Common Sense! If people just thought things through we would not have even half of the world’s problems that we have today!

This time around the lesson is on “Protocol” something that the younger New York Vinnie had all sorts of problems with. Believe it or not at one time New York Vinnie was not the nice guy that he is today. When I was younger I thought I had all the answers and was smarter than anyone. The problem was the people who I was working for at the time did not exactly see things the same way. So in the end New York Vinnie would find himself unemployed and out on the street.

Finally about 20 years ago New York Vinnie saw the light! I realized that the only Frickin way to change the system was to become part of the system. And the only way you can do that is by paying your Frickin dues and keeping your Frickin mouth shut. Eventually if you work hard enough you get promoted and when you get high enough on the ladder Then you can call the Frickin shots!

Protocol is a huge part of playing professional sports you have to follow the lines of command or you will end up nailed to the Frickin bench! In most cases it does not matter how talented you are if you can’t follow the rules. There is only one boss on the field or the hardwood that is the coach or the manager of the team. Problems arise when a player thinks that they are smarter than the coach and they can call their own shots. A player quickly develops a reputation as a malcontent or a bad guy and it can easily derail your career.

Most times when there is a matter of Protocol it is with a young player first coming into the NBA. In many cases the athlete has been allowed to bend or break the rules their whole lives because of their talent. Then all of a sudden they are in the Pros with players just as talented as he is and sometimes even more talented. Many times they start butting heads with their coach not realizing they will always lose. The ones who become successful in the Pros quickly look to conform. The others soon find themselves classified as former NBA players.

There are some instances however when a player comes into the NBA as a nice young man and then as their career progresses they turn sour. There are a million different reasons why this occurs but the result is always the same. The athlete goes from being known as a solid citizen model player into a head case. Controversy becomes a constant in the clubhouse which will ultimately tear apart a team. And may times the player will find themselves on a new team where circumstances can be worse than the one he just left.

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Baron Davis could be the poster boy for the player that New York Vinnie just described. The Baron at the start of his career had an idyllic situation with his first NBA head coach when he broke into the NBA with the Hornets in Paul Silas. Silas was a former star in the NBA with the Boston Celtics in the seventies. He is a big authoritative man and Davis and Silas formed an extremely tight bond. Neither Silas or Davis ever ran out of praises for the other one. Well that was then and this is now.

Last summer Davis became a Free Agent after opting out of his contract with the Golden State Warriors. Davis wanted out of Golden State due to a personality clash with Warriors head coach Don Nelson. Nelson is one of those coaches that players either idolize or despise there is no middle of the road. Davis unfortunately for Golden State fans fell into the latter group he was not a fan of Nelson and wanted out. 

New York Vinnie believes that when Davis signed his contract with his new club he was blinded by the dollar signs. Because if he was not he would have realized that the new coach he would be playing for was far more volatile than Nellie. Baron would soon be under the reigns of the most overrated coach in the NBA Mike Dunleavy.

New York Vinnie remembers when Dunleavy was a player in the NBA and one thing you could never fault him on was his effort on the floor. He was not blessed with a whole bunch of athletic ability but the guy would bust his hump when ever he was on the floor. He was a fiery combative competitive player who if he was on your team you loved and admired. If he was not on your team though you truly wanted to sissy-slap the Pud! Dunleavy retired from playing many years ago but his personality is just the same as a coach.

Needless to say The Baron and his coach were soon butting heads and the situation especially on a pathetic team like the Clippers soon turned ugly. And to make things worse Davis was out of action most of the season due to injury. The Baron said that last season was like “a bad dream” for himself and the entire franchise.

Friday the veteran sat down with the “Los Angeles Daily News” and told the paper he thinks things will be much smoother between he and his coach in the upcoming season. According to The Baron the two have spent this off-season spending some quality time together. He said “We watched a lot of tape. You know, just kind of getting in his brain. Things that he went through as a player, players that he played with. Just getting a better construction of who he is. I don’t think that we gave ourselves an opportunity last year to really know each other. We were trying to make it up on the fly, which is tough. Neither one of us really got to know each other. But I think all that is behind us now. And it feels good. It feels good.”

If Davis is sincere and not just spouting Crappola then it sounds like he gets it. If he truly means what he says he is growing up and realizing the only way he and the team will have any success will be if he and Dunleavy are simpatico. If these two are at each other’s throats again this year it will be a very long season for the other team from Los Angeles.  But if they can see eye to eye that will be a start for the Clippers to begin to turn things around as a team.